Mirzoyan-Kuleba meeting resembles playing with fire, says political scientist

Russian political scientist Bogdan Bezpalko commented to Alpha News on the meeting between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership ministerial summit in Brussels.

Mirzoyan and Kuleba exchanged views on the prospects for bilateral cooperation.

“It is obvious that these are unfriendly steps aimed at provoking the Russian authorities to make any harsh statements or take actions. And if these actions are taken, ordinary citizens of Armenia may suffer, who, for example, will not be able to sell their goods or who will lose their jobs as a result of Russia closing its market to Armenia. This has been discussed many times and people started to recall it when Russia closed the Verkhny Lars road for phytosanitary inspections. It is obvious that now Pashinyan’s confrontation is escalating,” Bezpalko said.

According to the political scientist, all these steps are like playing with fire.

“They want to tease us, but at the same time they are not going to enter into serious fights, for example, leaving the CSTO or the EAEU; so far there have been no such statements. On the contrary, the Armenian leadership strongly emphasizes that Armenia has no such thoughts. I think that the reaction from the Russian side will be very restrained. But you should not be surprised if the queues on the Verkhny Lars road increase and phytosanitary checks become stricter. If it suddenly turns out that Armenia has sold some military equipment, even through intermediaries, or even entered into agreements on military cooperation with France or Ukraine, then, of course, this could very seriously affect Russian-Armenian relations. And, as a rule, such meetings are always followed by such steps,” Bezpalko noted.

The political scientist also commented on Azerbaijan’s sale of weapons to Ukraine.

“Now, for example, it has suddenly been discovered that Azerbaijan is selling shells to Ukraine. I believe Russia will respond to this. We believed that Azerbaijan, a country that adheres to neutrality in the Russian-Ukrainian issue, could supply humanitarian aid to the territory of Ukraine, which, however, we did not entirely welcome, but still. Transformers are one thing, but the shells that are produced and sold to Ukraine are another thing. This is completely unacceptable. We will develop a proper response, but the development will take some time so that the response is strong enough and, at the same time, proper,” Bezpalko concluded.